The Words of

Rev. Ruth Ann Clark, D.Min.
Chair, AAPC Pacific Region

spoken at the Memorial Celebration for
Howard Clinebell

May14, 2005
Claremont, California

~

Thirty years ago when I was a parish pastor in southern California it was a privilege to take even one course in pastoral counseling with Howard Clinebell.  His teaching and his contributions to this profession continue to guide me to this day. His life was a gift in mine.

I join in this celebration of the life of Howard Clinebell representing the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (or AAPC).  We in AAPC owe much to Howard, and it is with deep gratitude that I share in this celebration of Howard today.

He was a man of amazing vitality, leadership and vision.  It was out of his leadership that the American Association of Pastoral Counselors was created.  In the late 1950’s and 1960’s clergy who were turning toward specialization in a ministry of pastoral care and counseling were gathering in groups around the country to share understandings, skills, and strategies for their ministries.  Howard became part of such a group in southern California when he moved here in 1957.  Before too long it was clear in this movement toward specialization that standards of competence and training were needed.  Howard took the lead in beginning conversation with folks in northern California, New York and other eastern cities.  Without detailing that process here, AAPC was born in 1963.  Howard was elected the first President of the Association and over the years gave much leadership to this special focus in ministry.

Howard’s vision continues to inform the Association today.  AAPC affirms that formation is a lifetime process, that we continue to learn and grow throughout our lives.  Howard cared deeply about the earth and our occupancy of it.  With AAPC as a base, he founded the International Pastoral Care Network for Social Responsibility.  Today, AAPC has an international membership.  Members are working extensively in social aspects of community need around the country.  Just one illustration of this is our work in training clergy in core competencies of addiction awareness and intervention.  It was in 1971 that Howard wrote: we "cannot separate the ethical and therapeutic ministries without making ethical discussion sterile and irrelevant."  I want to say to Howard now: We get it!

And I am personally grateful to Howard for his clear commitment to our religious/spiritual roots in this ministry of pastoral counseling.  This was an emphasis in the contribution of Howard and others in the West when AAPC was being formed.  Today, perhaps even more than in the 1960’s, AAPC is well attuned to the power of the spiritual dimensions in our lives.

In the midst of so many gifts and graces, Howard’s gentle sense of humor served him, his students and colleagues well.  He said that "a conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."  I hope he knows now that his AAPC friends are continuing to think, to grow, to reach out to the world, and that we in AAPC are one manifestation of his work being carried forward into the future.